Hakanaku mo akenikeru kana asatsuyu no okite no nochi zo kiemasarikeru - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

はかなくも明けにけるかな朝露の
おきての後ぞ消えまさりける

Roma-ji: Hakanaku mo akenikeru kana asatsuyu no okite no nochi zo kiemasarikeru
English Translation: How fleetingly now
the night has broken to dawn;
like the morning dew
after rising, after parting,
I fade away all the more
Meaning: How fleetingly the night has broken into dawn. Since I rose and left you, as the morning dew settles and then vanishes, I feel myself fading away all the more.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 1171

Headnote: "Bestowed on the Ōmi Consort."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence on parting at dawn. The night has broken all too soon, and after rising and parting, like the morning dew that settles, he feels himself vanishing all the more, like the dew. According to the headnote, it is a morning-after poem sent to the Ōmi Consort, and the next poem is her reply. The Ōmi Consort is Minamoto no Shūshi, the author of the next poem.
The author, "Engi," is Emperor Daigo. Engi is the era name of his reign, and he is called by it as the emperor of that age. He was a son of Emperor Uda.

The first line, "hakanaku mo," means "all too fleetingly." It laments the brevity of the lovers' night.
The second line, "akenikeru kana," means "it has broken to dawn," with a pause after the exclamatory "kana." Where the preceding poems sang of nights that broke without a meeting, this one sings of a night that breaks after the lovers have met.
The third line, "asatsuyu no," means "like the morning dew," leading into "oki" in the fourth line.
In the fourth line, "okite no nochi zo," "oki" is a pivot word meaning both "dew settles" and "rising from bed." The emphatic "zo" forms a kakari-musubi with "keru" in the last line.
The last line, "kiemasarikeru," means "I fade away all the more." The vanishing of dew is overlaid with the feeling of the self fading away after parting, and "dew," "settling," and "vanishing" are linked as associated words. Taking up "kiyu," "to vanish," from "kienubeki kana" in the preceding poem, a run of poems on a self vanishing like dew begins here.
Author: Emperor Daigo
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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